ia/ - Information Architecture (IA)

Information architect on Web Worker Daily

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:48:10 -0700

The role of information architect is featured at Web Worker Daily today:

Web Worker Payoff: Information Architect

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 -0800

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Discourse around Emergent Information Architecture

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:04:39 -0700

A couple of great blog posts by Peter Merholz â Emergent IA and Gene Smith â How do people co-create information environments? touching on topics surrounding emergent IA. There is also some follow up discussion in the IAI mailing list.

IA Summit summaries

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:59:49 -0700

So, summaries from the IA Summit have been coming out - the most recent at Boxes and Arrows, now in its 5th year of Summit coverage. See session-by-session descriptions and reflection for
- Overview and Preconferences
- Saturday
- Sunday
- Monday

UXMatters also has a summary posted, a reflective take from one summit attendee that's illuminating.

Finally many presentation slide decks and posters have been linked on the IA Summit site itself (with many thanks to Donna Maurer).

Enterprise Metadata Blog

Tue, 17 May 2005 13:38:29 -0700

Enterprise Metadata Blog by R. Todd Stephens

Todd has got a nice mix of enterprise metadata from both theory and practice since he did his dissertation at the same as working at Bell South on real enterprise metadata needs. He has presented at several conferences involving both the more techie stuff at DAMA International as well as Dublin Core and other related conferences. I believe this intesection of the techie/practical world and the theory/academic world gives us a good mix of the challenges we face at managing information systems. He's definitely in the mix of things I'd like to be involved. It will be interesting to see where his blog goes in sharing his experiences. Many of his previous presentations and handouts are also available on his site.

Lou Rosenfeld updates his Enterprise IA Roadmap

Wed, 04 May 2005 08:57:16 -0700

Lou Rosenfeld shares his Enterprise Information Architecture Roadmap. This update reflects the insights Lou's gained after using it in consulting and teaching it in his EIA seminars across the US. Great stuff - I think that there's definitely an enterprise imperative for effective IA, but that we need to co-opt or cooperate with other enterprise architecture efforts.

Products that interaction design and information architecture methods address

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 14:13:33 -0800

I like Dan Saffer's diagram looking at interaction design and information architecture (PDF) through the lens of what kind of products each practice addresses. It's concrete, instead of the hand-waving turf war some people enjoy. It reminds me of Marti Hearst's quadrant from CHI2001 panel on measuring IA (requires IE, see slide #2 'A Simple Taxonomy'). The axes for the quadrant were complexity of content and complexity of applications...

A research agenda for Information Architecture

Wed, 24 Nov 2004 13:53:42 -0800

Peter van Dijck expresses frustration with the slow pace of new thinking in his information architecture research agenda. Lots of good response on SIGIA and the aifia-members lists that Peter sums up on his blog.

In particular, the question of whether we need more research, or whether we need more innovation is important. While basic research is valuable, many of Peter's points revolve around cross-training with other disciplines like business management or ethnography...often a quicker win for practitioners.

The problem of a slower flow of new ideas is also from maturing practice - our current tools are good enough to get by, so we aren't as motivated to find new tools, even though they might be better.

A-Z Indexes for Web Sites: Usage and Implementation

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 10:45:14 -0800

What’s the level of interest among information architects and web developers in implementing A-Z indexes on their sites?

Why don’t we see more indexes? I attempted to answer this question in a posting an essay to IA-WIKI Web Site Indexes, although I have not yet received any comments there.

My sense is that even if information architects are interested in implementing A-Z indexes, they do not have the time, inclination, or skills to do it themselves (unless they are former librarians who had taken a course in indexing). Indexing is similar, yet distinct enough from category or taxonomy development to require specific training or study from a course or book. Yet information architects might not even know where to find contract indexers.

As indexing is a very established profession, it is probably easier for people who create web sites to look up indexers, than for indexers to try to target people creating web sites. Most indexers belong to the professional associations of their country, which maintain searchable online directories of subscribing members and contract job posting bulletins.

Personal Information Architectures

Mon, 08 Nov 2004 21:18:42 -0800

Gene has an interesting post about personal information architectures, something he spoke about at the recent Future of IA Retreat. While the recent interest in social classification and folksonomy is a large reason to talk about personal info. architecture, I think that Thomas Vanderwal has also been talking about the issue for a few years as the Personal Info Cloud.

Collection of IA related research

Wed, 08 Sep 2004 06:48:11 -0700

Peter Morville spent some time in the library this summer looking for research related to information architecture. He just published a list of freely available papers, categorized by broad topics like navigation and search. Useful stuff, but heavy reading at times.

More IA Heuristics - Search

Fri, 03 Sep 2004 12:42:47 -0700

Lou Rosenfeld shares some more IA heuristics, this time focused on search.

Enterprise IA Presentations

Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:48:14 -0700

Gene Smith has collected quite a few presentations on Enterprise Information Architecture. If you can’t get to one of Lou’s EIA seminars, or if you’re wondering if you should go, this is a great place to wrap your head around EIA.

IA Heuristics

Wed, 18 Aug 2004 08:10:05 -0700

Lou Rosenfeld offers up his set of heuristics for information architecture. Much more useful for evaluating findability than Jakob and Rolf’s original usability heuristics that were developed in DOS days.

Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary Project

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 05:07:12 -0700

“The Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary Project is a cross-organizational, multi-disciplined effort to establish a standard for all public broadcasting content (radio and television), in order that metadata might be more easily exchanged between colleagues, software systems, institutions, community partners, individual citizens, etc. The Project will be a “touchstone,” a single, streamlined standard to which other database structures, including those of PBS, NPR, major producing stations, and other asset/content management systems will be “mapped.” It can also be used as a guide for the onset of an archival or asset management process at an individual station or institution.”